On Tuesday 12 March 2013 Nathan Luke partner of Stacks Law Firm Ballina gave a presentation to the Tweed Heads Chamber of Commerce entitled "protecting your Goodwill in the 21st Century". Bruce Charge...

On Tuesday 12 March 2013 Nathan Luke partner of Stacks Law Firm Ballina gave a presentation to the Tweed Heads Chamber of Commerce entitled "protecting your Goodwill in the 21st Century". Bruce Charge and Ruth Whisker of Stacks Law Firm Tweed Heads were also in attendance.

Nathan's presentation touched on traditional protection of Goodwill such as Vendor and Employee restraints but focussed on the emergence of business review sites such as Yelp, City Search, Trip Advisor, Google places and how the law is struggling to keep up to give protection against malicious and false reviews. A range of effective practical alternatives was discussed.

The presentation matched well with a representative of the National Broadbank Network also in attendance to discuss the roll out of the NBN in the Tweed Area.

Having returned from deepest darkest South America without being asked to attend the local Courthouse to give evidence by video link, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that this matter has s...

Having returned from deepest darkest South America without being asked to attend the local Courthouse to give evidence by video link, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that this matter has settled with Sally to get her entitlement of the unit. I fully anticipated that the deceased's daughter would take the matter all the way. I am very grateful for the enormous effort that yourselves as well as David Crossan (Stacks Law Firm Tweed Heads) put into this matter and I thank you.

We here at Stacks Law Firm Ballina have seen a recent increase in work from our local clients and also our Sydney based Corporate clients in the areas of residential and investment property transactio...

We here at Stacks Law Firm Ballina have seen a recent increase in work from our local clients and also our Sydney based Corporate clients in the areas of residential and investment property transactions. Could this be the start of a recovery? Let's hope so.

At Stacks Law Firm Ballina we provide expert and cost effective conveyancing services and property law advice. We pride ourselves on our reputation for being a Firm that keeps everyone involved well informed about the transaction and getting the job done promptly and smoothly.

Stacks Law Firm in Ballina has acted on behalf of a local family in a successful application brought against their neighbours in the Land and Environment Court under the recently amended Trees (Disput...

Stacks Law Firm in Ballina has acted on behalf of a local family in a successful application brought against their neighbours in the Land and Environment Court under the recently amended Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006. This is one of only a few such matters that has proceeded to judgment in the Northern Rivers of NSW.

It was our client’s claim that their neighbours had planted a row of trees which severely blocked their ocean view. The claim was strongly contested by the neighbour but the Commissioner found that a view had been severely obstructed and orders were made for the neighbours to remove vegetation and to abide by a tree height restriction into the future.

As any solicitor knows disputes between neighbours can be very difficult and emotional. In the past hedges and trees have been deliberately used in “revenge” against, for example, an unwanted development next door. Other times it seems that problems are caused by a neighbour simply being unreasonable and inconsiderate when planting and maintaining trees. Blocking of views and sunlight and debris falling across boundaries are common complaints. Prior to this new lawthere was very limited legal redress for property owners affected. The frustration this caused resulted in some severe outcomes including physical altercations between neighbours.

The intention of the changes was to provide “a simple, inexpensive, and accessible process for resolving neighbour disputes about trees”. The Commissioners that hear the matters are generally qualified arborists and the hearing is to be conducted on site and be heard within a couple of hours with judgment to be delivered on the same day. However if you read the judgments available on the Court website it is obvious that many of these disputes have not been simple nor inexpensive with complex legal argument being advanced by parties generally instructing solicitors and even Barristers, supported by a raft of experts including architects, arborists and “visual impact assessors”. With the greatest of respect to the Court it would seem that most unfortunately the intent of the legislation to provide a simple inexpensive process has been defeated by the Court’s decision in its consideration and judgements to apply complex legal and planning principles which it more appropriately utilises in its general jurisdiction. There is scope for a review of this legislation and perhaps these matters should at first instance be handled by local government officers and community justice centres to reduce costs and complexity.

It is our recommendation that any individual suffering problems with neighbours trees should seek legal advice before attempting to utilise the current process.

A great success story for one of our client's this year was The Bundjalung Tribal Society "BTS". BTS is a charitable organisation providing low cost housing to the local aboriginal community.
BTS ...

A great success story for one of our client's this year was The Bundjalung Tribal Society "BTS". BTS is a charitable organisation providing low cost housing to the local aboriginal community.

BTS has over the last 2 years carried out a massive amount of work to restructure its operations. This was in response to the Federal Government's drive to modernise Aboriginal organisations and to ensure more professional and efficient delivery of funded services. BTS has now been award a "PARS" accreditation which means it is now one of the leading Aboriginal organisations in NSW which will have a massive benefit to its local members of Bundjalung Nation.

Stacks Law Firm in Ballina is very proud to have assisted BTS and to be associated with the organisation.

This morning I was able to attend a pre-hearing conference in the Melbourne Magistrates Court by telephone.
This is a great resource for clients involved in litigation in Victoria as it enables th...

This morning I was able to attend a pre-hearing conference in the Melbourne Magistrates Court by telephone.

This is a great resource for clients involved in litigation in Victoria as it enables the solicitor with carriage of the matter to attend without the need to incur costs in travelling, or by engaging counsel.

Following on about my recent post in relation to the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Stacks/Southern Highlands is continuing to expand our use of the eCourt, eCourtroom and eCase Administration for matte...

Following on about my recent post in relation to the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Stacks/Southern Highlands is continuing to expand our use of the eCourt, eCourtroom and eCase Administration for matters in the Federal Court of Australia.

These facilities permit solicitors to file documents electronically and assist the Court in facilitating the orderly conduct of the matter. Again, this can all be done from the office (or anywhere with an internet connection) and provides our clients with significant cost savings as we are not obliged to travel to court or engage counsel to appear on behalf of our client.

We recently negotiated a spectacular result in a compensation case against the RTA where farm land was being taken for the realignment of the Pacific Highway near Bangalow in northern NSW. The new al...

We recently negotiated a spectacular result in a compensation case against the RTA where farm land was being taken for the realignment of the Pacific Highway near Bangalow in northern NSW. The new alignment of the highway runs very close to our client's home and would cause major noise problems, which could not realistically be solved by treating the house (asbestos materials complicated this even further).

The RTA's noise assessment was inadequate and misleading. Their noise control solutions were unacceptable: close the windows and run an airconditioner (this is a farmhouse on a rural property, accustomed to natural ventilation, fresh air and enjoyment of the outdoors).

Acoustic experts were engaged and preparations made for a serious fight in court to prove that the existing house would be made unliveable by the noise from the new highway, but lateral thinking found a better solution.

A beautiful old timber house on an adjoining farm had been acquired by the RTA and was slated for demolition to make way for a new cutting, despite having heritage significance. It was too big to move along the highway, but a deal was done to move that house across the paddocks onto our client's place and, with the assistance of a bulldozer, drag it up a steep hill to a new location well removed from the new highway. I'll try to post some photos of the move as soon as I work out how to do that.

All around, a great result. A heritage building was saved from demolition and reused as a farmhouse in its local context, our clients are ecstatic with the character and location of their "new" home, the RTA saved a lot of money compared with the cost of building a new house and we managed to keep our clients out of a stressful court battle about highly technical noise issues.

Subsequently, the RTA accepted that their initial noise assessment was wrong and commissioned a new study, which will be of assistance to other affected landowners in the area.

Most people are not aware of how serious being an executor or administrator of an estate is. In one of our recent successes this has been highlighted.
A person who had been successful in obtaining L...

Most people are not aware of how serious being an executor or administrator of an estate is. In one of our recent successes this has been highlighted.

A person who had been successful in obtaining Letter of Administration for an estate had then been dishonest in his dealings with the assets of the estate. The beneficiaries had received nothing, and the funds were gone (including the proceeds of a sale of a house).

It would seem a pretty simple matter that the administrator (who fills the role of executor when there is no Will, or as in this case, where the executor of the Will had died) shoudl eb removed,a dn teh beneficiaries given the power to get the assets back.

In some ways it is that simple - but . . . the appointment of an executor or administrator by the Court is very serious, the appointment makes that person an officer of the Court and the Court does not release them lightly.

We finally received judgment in favour of the beneficiaries and are now setting about recovering the assets!

A client with no prior major driving offences was able to avoid a 12 month disqualification period for driving whilst disqualified. This was only in light of his good driving record and the Court acce...

A client with no prior major driving offences was able to avoid a 12 month disqualification period for driving whilst disqualified. This was only in light of his good driving record and the Court accepting his honesty as to his misconceiving the directive from the police of his facing further charges if he failed to hand in his suspended drivers licence by a certain time. Living by himself somewhere with no public transport, and not able to get anyone to give him a lift, he actually drove to the police station to hand-in his licence! Hence the offence. Instead of a modest fine for being late to hand-in the licence, he would have faced an extra 12 months off the road. Fortunately for him, the court found the offence proven but entered no conviction on the basis of his entering a good behaviour bond for the same time as the disqualification for the offence for which his licence was suspended, namaely his drink driving. This was very out of character for him. He could have very easily walked home from the hotel but he had only recently come out of a couple of weeks in hospital and he mistakenly only thought of his own post-operative discomfort if he had to walk home from the hotel, and so he took his car to the hotel and drove it back.

We were able to save a client from serving 3 months in jail and missing Christmas with his family, when we appealed to the District Court. The appeal was successful mainly because the client's prior ...

We were able to save a client from serving 3 months in jail and missing Christmas with his family, when we appealed to the District Court. The appeal was successful mainly because the client's prior offences were over 10 years ago, and he had not re-offended in that period. His decision to drive was because of his erroneously imagining that he needed to drive somewhere to do something to support a family member. Accepting some beers from someone beforehand did not help! His remorse was evident. His period of disqualification was not appealed. A disqualification period less than the automatic period but more than the minimum was considered appropriate given his bad record.

I recently acted for a man that was charged with a total of 5 breaches of Apprehended Domestic Violence Order. All of these breaches were of a non-violent nature and (in my view) as a result of a tota...

I recently acted for a man that was charged with a total of 5 breaches of Apprehended Domestic Violence Order. All of these breaches were of a non-violent nature and (in my view) as a result of a totally unworkable clause in the ADVO that should never have been implemented.
The breaches of ADVO were also breaches of a section 9 Good Behaviour Bond. The history of his relationship with his wife, the person in need of protection, was tumultuous to say the least, with each being charged with assault against the other (the wife on two occasions and our client on one) and each being the person in need of protection on reciprocal ADVOs. They had 3 children together who were also listed as PINOPs on the father’s order against the mother.
The father first sought my advice when he had been charged with just 2 breaches arising from one incident. The day before we were set to go to Court for these 2 offences he was charged with another breach and was arrested. He was refused bail by police and remanded to appear before the Local Court the next day. We were able to get bail and we had the fresh matter set down for sentence on the same day as the previous 2 matters so that they could all be dealt with together and he did not have to re-appear before the same Magistrate with a ‘further’ breach. At this stage, given the number of offences and the fact that he was on a GBB at the time, my client was understandably concerned that he would be in custody over Christmas and would not be able to see his children. I remained hopeful that we would get the benefits of the Court’s discretion and was aiming for a s. 12 suspended sentence.
Then again on the day before the 3 matters were set down for sentence my client telephoned me from custody: he had been charged with another 2 breaches of ADVO. He was refused bail by both police and the Court. I sought to have these 2 matters set down for hearing at the same time as the previous 3 matters for the aforementioned reasons. At this stage both he and I were preparing for the worst. However, after an extended plea before the Local Court Magistrate, my client was sentenced to a further s. 9 Good Behaviour Bond for the period of 2 years with supervision by Probation and Parole Services. Needless to say, he was extremely happy and relieved and gave me a bottle of one of the finest Penfolds red wines as a token of his gratitude! I have no doubt that he would have received a much more severe penalty if I had not had all of the matters listed for sentence at the same time.

We have a client who sustained an injury in the course of his employment and was paid compensation pursuant to the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) ("the Act"). The client required surgery to treat...

We have a client who sustained an injury in the course of his employment and was paid compensation pursuant to the Workers Compensation Act1987 (NSW) ("the Act"). The client required surgery to treat the injury and as a consequence of the negligence of the treating doctor, suffered an additional injury.

In the course of the proceedings for damages against the doctor, the client sought a declaration from the workers compensation insurer that payments made to him pursuant to the Act were not repayable pursuant to Section 151Z.

The workers compensation insurer advised us that they considered they had a right of recovery for all weekly compensation benefits and medical expenses paid pursuant to Section 151Z (1) (d) of the Act and would be pursuing recovery of these.

In reply we wrote to the insurer and advised there have been a series of Court of Appeal decisions which have found that in this situation Section 151Z (1) (d) does not operate to allow the workers compensation insurer to recover the payments it has made.

In Hood Constructions Pty Limited v Nicholas [1987] NSWLR 60 the court stated that the injury caused by the medical treatment was not "an injury for which compensation is payable" within the meaning of Section 151Z, notwithstanding the fact that the surgery was undertaken to remedy an injury sustained in the court of employment. The court went on to find that the worker's damages against the doctor were to be reduced to take into account the compensation payments already received.

This was confirmed in the matter of Rooty Hill Medical Centre Pty Limited v Gunther [2002] NSWCA 60. The court of appeal confirmed that Section 151Z of the Workers Compensation Act did not apply and the plaintiff’s damages had to be reduced to give effect to the overriding intention of parliament that a worker should not be entitled to both compensation and damages.

The workers compensation insurer then conceded that Section 151Z did not apply in this case and they would not be pursuing any recovery from our client. This was important as we were then able to advise our client on his likely damages if he was successful in the claim.

We were successful in having the Federal Magistrates Court retain jurisdiction in a property dispute between two persons of the same gender who had lived together for several decades. One party was de...

We were successful in having the Federal Magistrates Court retain jurisdiction in a property dispute between two persons of the same gender who had lived together for several decades. One party was denying there had been a de facto relationship. This could have removed the Court's jurisdiction to deal with the matter. With some guidance from the Federal Magistrate and each side having advice from their own counsel, the parties were eventually able to agree on Interim Consent Orders confirming the Court having jurisdiction. The Federal Magistrate highlighted that the Court could consider numerous factors in order to decide that a de facto relationship had existed. The court did not have to base its decision on whether or not there ever was a sexual relationship. The Federal Magistrate was pleased he did not have to observe anyone being cross-examined on such issues or on any of the other considerations relevant to determining whether the parties had been in a de facto relationship.

Last night I gave a presentation to a large group who attended at a Financial Seminar hosted by Suncorp in Ballina. The focus of the seminar was upon retiree investment strategy. I gave a presentat...

Last night I gave a presentation to a large group who attended at a Financial Seminar hosted by Suncorp in Ballina. The focus of the seminar was upon retiree investment strategy. I gave a presentation on the high importance of proper Estate planning and in particular the advantages of the use of a Stacks/Wealth Protection Will and testamentary trusts.

There was a great meal put on afterwards by the Ballina RSL and it was great to spend time afterwards getting to know the local attendees and discussing their needs.

Thanks very much to the organisers and attendees and in particular Mr Mark McGregor, Financial Planner, Suncorp Bank Ballina.

We helped a father who was able to borrow enough to refinance the existing home mortage and keep the former matrimonial home. This was such that he was able to successfully negotiate a settlement whic...

We helped a father who was able to borrow enough to refinance the existing home mortage and keep the former matrimonial home. This was such that he was able to successfully negotiate a settlement which was able to be resolved with signed Consent Orders available when the matter was first before the Court. This saved him a lot in potential legal costs, and he was happy with the outcome. Both sides were able to get a resolution promptly without pushing things to a bitter, delayed, and expensive end. Discussions with Police also helped let him manage an AVO application against him, such that he could remain in the former matrimonial home from even before when the property settlement negotiations got under way.

We attended court with our client, and after highlighting that the application had some errors on the face of it, the prosecutor called the police informant who gave evidence that the protected person...

We attended court with our client, and after highlighting that the application had some errors on the face of it, the prosecutor called the police informant who gave evidence that the protected person no longer had any fears. We wonder whether if we weren't there, the police may have assumed that our client might not be opposing the AVO, and they may then have sat back and just seen if, when asked by the Magistrate, our client accepted such Orders, and allowed the Court to make such Orders.

I have recently been appointed to the Legal Aid Criminal Law (General) Panel and Stacks/Forster is on the Duty Roster for Forster Local Court starting in March 2012. So come and see us for all of your...

I have recently been appointed to the Legal Aid Criminal Law (General) Panel and Stacks/Forster is on the Duty Roster for Forster Local Court starting in March 2012. So come and see us for all of your criminal law needs!

We will be giving a presentation on the advantages of Stacks/Wealth Protection Wills at a Financial Planning Seminar to be held by Suncorp Ballina at the Ballina R.S.L club 5.45 p.m. next Tuesday 22 N...

We will be giving a presentation on the advantages of Stacks/Wealth Protection Wills at a Financial Planning Seminar to be held by Suncorp Ballina at the Ballina R.S.L club 5.45 p.m. next Tuesday 22 November 2011. All welcome to attend.

Digby Dunn, Michael Laurence and I recently worked together on a matter involving both workers compensation and motor vehicle accident claims. the MVA claim was fraught with difficulty, and it seemed ...

Digby Dunn, Michael Laurence and I recently worked together on a matter involving both workers compensation and motor vehicle accident claims. the MVA claim was fraught with difficulty, and it seemed that the workers compensation scheme would provide the client with a better and quicker result in his circumstances. This advice was given and the client elected to pursue the workers compensation claim rather than the MVA claim. I saw this client at the local shopping centre yesterday. He made a point of coming up to me and telling me that he has turned his life around following the accident; had recently gotten married and bought a house, and had just gained well-paying employment. He said: "I just wanted to thank you for everything that you all did for me. You were fantastic and I really appreciate it. It was the beginning of a bright new future for me." It was great to see such a happy client.

Obtained a s.12 bond for a client in District Court of Appeal, effectively reducing my client's sentence from 4 months gaol to a Good Behaviour Bond plus reduction of drivers licence disqualification ...

Obtained a s.12 bond for a client in District Court of Appeal, effectively reducing my client's sentence from 4 months gaol to a Good Behaviour Bond plus reduction of drivers licence disqualification by 12 months. Great result.

When people die without a Will the process we lawyers must follow to help family deal with the estate is called Letters of Administration.
Whilst more involved then applying for Probate where there ...

When people die without a Will the process we lawyers must follow to help family deal with the estate is called Letters of Administration.

Whilst more involved then applying for Probate where there is a Will, they are usually pretty straight forward. Not in this case . . .

In this case there were no surviving spouse, children or parents . . . which means brothers and sisters were to inherit! However, out of this persons 5 siblings, 4 had already died - 2 within 2 weeks of him, one of those without a Will!

Well - what a mess!!!

Added to that one of the beneficiaries cannot be found!!!

I am very proud to say that we achieved administration for the family without the need to refer the matter to the NSW Trustee & Guardian, the estate has been administrated.

I was so proud of both myself and my team I even came back from maternity leave to see the end result with my own eyes!

Stacks Blog

25/03/2015 |

WHEN PRANKS BREAK THE LAW They might be meant as fun, but pranks can end up with the prankster facing serious criminal charges, convictions and time in jail...

25/02/2015 |

HELP - MY CRUISE HOLIDAY TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE More and more people are taking cruise ship holidays. They have the advantage of not having to pack and unpack suitcases or drive in foreign places while all the time enjoying being pampered with food and entertainment and visiting interesting places...

Latest News

20/03/2015 |

ROTARIANS IN TRAINING Forty Rotary District 9650 leaders and their partners congregated in Taree last weekend for training with incoming District Governor Maurie Stack from Taree and his trainer Brian Beesley from Gloucester...